Bearclaw Valley Welcome to Rising Sun Valley, Brother.

The valley was his, ruled once again by a stark white king. There was a new air of arrogance that encircled him, rolling off the male in waves, but it was not alone as joy was mixed in. He was happy to be home, happy to have reclaimed his role as the heir to the valley and then the throne itself. And to think, he had all of his childhood possessions returned to him, along with the presences of his sisters; though Sesi was, to his knowledge, still nowhere to be found, he took comfort in knowing that at least Desna and Nanook were both safe. The thought of paying them another visit had just crossed his mind when his youngest sister’s howl rang out through the valley, accompanied by another, weaker one. Without even an ounce of hesitance, he headed towards the valley’s entrance, sprinting at first and then slowing to an evenly-paced trot as he made his way up through the path.

Alexander saw the trio prior to exiting the pathway, but didn’t actually stop until he was but a few steps away from them. His eyes fell to the children first, noting that there was now a male in place of the dark-furred girl he’d met before—strange. The boy was offered no greater than a handful of seconds worth of his attention before his eyes shifted over to Clary, the faint traces of a smile settling across his lips. “The stubborn one didn’t join you this time?” he asked her, knowing he need not clarify who he meant; he didn’t know their names yet, either, which contributed to his choice of words.

Finally, he turned to Desna, acknowledging the skin at her feet without asking about it. “Hey,” he said instead. “What’re you doing here?” It took a few, long seconds after he spoke before the words reached his own ears. “Not that you’re not welcome here, I just didn’t expect you to visit,” he clarified. He expected visits from Nanook but he never thought he’d see Desna stopping by; though he felt as if they were doing well and acting decent towards one another, the valley wasn’t a place that held many positive memories between them, and he’d doubted that she’d want to stop by because of his past behavior towards her.